BOULDER — Some observations about Saturday’s scrimmage, which numbered 148 plays and lasted four minutes shy of two hours, without a break:

• Head coach Jon Embree said true freshman John Schrock, a 6-foot, 215-pound walk-on from suburban Kansas City, is in the lead for the No. 3 quarterback, which would travel along with senior starter Tyler Hansen and redshirt-freshman Nick Hirschman. “John Schrock’s been great,” Embree said. “He has good awareness of where to go with the ball. I’ve got to see the tape, but I think he’s probably entrenched himself as the No. 3 guy, I think it would be safe to say that. He’s got to keep coming now.”

• Embree said he was disappointed with a bit of sloppiness on the offensive side of the ball. Illegal procedure penalties were called four or five times. Embree said one problem is rotating several candidates for the center position “but that’s no excuse. It doesn’t matter who is in there, we have to be dialed in. That’s probably the biggest disappointment coming out of the scrimmage.”

• Offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy watched from the tower, some 35 to 40 feet above the practice field. Bieniemy appeared to have an extremely tight grip on the railing. “Did he make it down?” Embree quipped. “He’s not a guy for heights.”

• The defensive line played well. “There were five or six sacks … I thought it was more (good play by) the defense than (poor play by) the offensive line,” Embree said.

• Nothing was decided in the punting competition, but both place-kickers, freshman Will Oliver, who was declared the starter earlier in the week, and sophomore Justin Castor, were solid. Embree said he might use two kickers this season, with Castor responsible for the long ones.

• The first cornerback mentioned by Embree was a true freshman: Greg Henderson, a 5-11, 185-pounder from Corona, Calif. “I like No. 20 a lot,” Embree said.

• No injuries were reported, which may have been the best news of all.

• CU did not release scrimmage statistics, but some of the memorable plays included a 51-yard pass from Hansen to Georgia transfer Logan Gray; a twisting, turning 22-yard TD run by senior tailback Rodney Stewart; a 30-yard catch and run by freshman wideout Tyler McCulloch; and a big hit by true freshman safety Kyle Washington on Stewart as the senior tried to cut upfield on a sweep.

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